


Trick or Treat or Costume Change

by GettheSalt



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Trick or Treating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 06:42:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5118920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GettheSalt/pseuds/GettheSalt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grant and Leo take the kids out trick-or-treating, and get a reminder just how fickle the decisions of six year olds can be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trick or Treat or Costume Change

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the [domesticverse](http://slamncram.tumblr.com/tagged/domestic!fitzwardverse) created by myself and [AndLatitude](http://andlatitude.tumblr.com)

The bedroom door closed with a  _click_  that was strangely anxious sounding, even to Grant's ears, and he couldn't help but know exactly what was coming. They'd been dreading this, since the last change had happened a week ago. They'd put their collective foot down, and said that  _this_  was the  _last time_  a change could be made, or the whole thing was going to be called off. It had seemed like their ultimatum went off without a hitch, but that click...

That click gave Grant a pause.

"Please. Don't say it..." He started, not turning around from where he was standing at their closet. Their costumes were tucked inside, nestled against the wall, and, next to them, hung two smaller costumes. One of which, Grant suspected, was about to become the object of an argument.

"I don't have to." Leo deadpanned. "You already know what I'm going to say."

With a heavy sigh, Grant turned, shaking his head. "You know what we said, last week, when she changed her mind. If she changed it again - for a  _fifth_  time - then she wasn't going to be going trick or treating."

Leo nodded, crossing his arms. "Yeah, I know. I was standing next to you when you said it." If his tone hadn't conveyed the sass in his words, the set of his eyebrows sure did, as he planted his feet and stared Grant down. "You know we can't do that. We would be the worst parents  _ever_."

"Worst parents ever don't go back to the store a week before Halloween to exchange her costume a fourth time-- sorry, no, I returned it that time-- because they want their little girl to be happy." Grant pointed out. "Leo, babe--"

"--No, don't you ' _babe_ ' me." Leo interrupted, waving a finger at him. "Because next thing I know, I'm going to be the one being the bad guy, telling her she has to stay here with one of us and hand out candy, because she broke our deal."

Grant frowned. "So, I have to be the bad guy?"

Leo looked like he was considering it for a second, before he said, slowly, carefully, like the plan was still working out in his head, "What if... neither of us were the bad guy?"

There was a thump in the hallway, and Grant's eyes flicked to their door, before looking back at Leo. Both of them stood there for a second, listening to see if one or both of the kids was about to start wailing. The silence stretched on for a little too long to be comfortable, before Brody's voice called out " _It's okay! I killed a spider!_ " followed by a loud " _EWWW_ " from Tilda. Grant let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and looked to Leo to continue.

"You had some evil plan in mind?"

Leo made a face, walking over to join him at the closet, gently nudging him out of the way with his hip, and reaching for the kids' costumes. "Why do you have to call it an evil plan? It isn't evil. Like everything I do, it's brilliant."

Snorting, Grant backed away, watching Leo step back with a costume in each hand, holding Tilda's up for inspection. "Okay, so then what is this 'brilliant' plan of yours? Need I remind you that our daughter can be as stubborn as you and..."

"As grumpy as you?" Leo finished, lowering Tilda's costume to smirk at him over the hanger. "It's okay, you can say it. The first step towards living with being a Grump is accepting that you are, sometimes, a grump."

It was hard to fight back his smile, but Grant managed. Barely. "Brilliant plan." He repeated, urging Leo on.

His husband rolled his eyes. "You're being a killjoy." He muttered. "You better not be like this when we take the kids out."

"I'm probably going to be staying home with Tilda, if you keep stalling on telling me your brilliant plan."

Another look, this one a little more pointed than the last. "Oh, ye of little faith. You don't even know what she's changed her mind to."

Grant had to concede that one. He didn't have the slightest idea what their youngest had changed her mind to. Brody had been dead set on being a pirate, this year, and with how into it he'd gotten, Grant and Leo had needed to look up how to do certain make-up and faux facial hair effects on him to complete the look he wanted.

Tilda had changed her mind from astronaut, to fairy, to pirate to match her brother, then to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, before she had finally requested that she get to be Princess Tiana. It worked out well: they had her dress, still, from earlier that summer when they'd driven to Disneyland, and, thankfully, it still fit her - the virtues of having bought the dress a little larger than she normally wore.

That had been when Grant had struck the deal with her. He didn't mind that she was being so creative, but it was starting to get a little ridiculous, and if she asked again, she'd be staying home, dressed as a sheet ghost, with one of them, handing out candy. It wasn't an ultimatum he liked to make, but he wasn't about to let her think that any time she had the slightest whim, they were going to fall all over themselves to fulfill it. She had agreed to that, with a little nod - even offering to 'pinky promise' with them, which, Brody said, meant that she was super serious about this.

And now, just over an hour before they needed to leave if they were going to hit the 'good houses', she was changing her mind. Again.

"All right, oh wise one." Grant started, the one to cross his arms this time. "What has she changed her mind to now?"

Leo smirked.

*

"Dad, it looks so good."

Grant snorted, stopping to wait while Brody checked his own reflection in the tinted window of a car parked on the street. He was standing well back from it, pulling faces he could barely see in the glow of the streetlight, watching how the facial hair Grant had helped him attach moved every time. "Glad you like it, kiddo."

Brody bounced back on his heels, before hurrying to catch up with Leo and Tilda. The satchel he had draped over his shoulder bounced against his hip as he did, half full with candy already. The satchel worked well into his costume, much like how the pillowcases Grant was carrying for their excess candy worked into his. Billowing tan pants tucked into the tops of dark brown boots, and a blue sash was tied around his waist, tied over the black vest he was wearing over his white shirt. The sleeves were flapping around his arms while he ran past Leo, one hand holding his dark brown pirate hat firm on his head as he ran. Grant had managed to track down a red, anchor patterned bandana that they'd tied over his dark brown curls before setting the hat on top. All in all, with the goatee and mustache styled on, Brody looked pretty damn pirate-y.

"Don't get too far ahead." Leo warned, more of a reminder than a reprimand. Tilda skipped a step, and then another, looking up at them.

"Can I go with Brody?" She asked. Their six year old was definitely her own person, her own stubborn, bright soul, but she looked up to her big brother in a way that settled Grant's worries. His children had a good, close relationship; much, much better than the one he'd had with his own siblings.

"Go on." Grant said, before calling up to Brody to slow down and wait for his sister. Tilda's sparkly little dress shoes tapped on the sidewalk as she hurried to catch up with her big brother. They weren’t far ahead, maybe ten feet. Not anywhere close to out of their sight.  

"Anything you wanted to say to me?" Leo asked, his tone smug.

Grant had to concede that he had reason to sound that way.

Tilda's new costume had remained a secret to Grant until she and Leo had come out of her room, and her little face was split in a wide, bright, happy grin.

A wide, bright, happy grin on a face that was covered in off-green face paint, her eyes ringed in black. Leo had outdone himself, painting lines leading from the corners of her mouth, out, along her jaw, crossed over with white, mimicking stitches. He'd done another, short line, under her left eye, and yet another line of stitches stretching from her eyebrow to her hairline. He'd added little dabs of red and grey, here and there, especially along her cheekbones, to finish up the look.

Then, her thick, dark hair, was gathered into a bun on top of her hair, a small, silver crown pinned into it. Her Princess Tiana dress left her arms bare, but Leo had wrapped them in cloth bandages from the first aid kit, loosely hanging in a few spots, like they were hastily done - or undone. Matching bandages were obvious on her legs, under the dress, and a roll of them draped like a scarf around her neck.

Tilda's requested costume change had been from Princess Tiana to a zombie.

Grant wasn't sure where in the world she'd gotten that idea - Leo had said something about her thinking that Halloween costumes had to be scary - and, more, hadn't had the slightest idea how they were supposed to pull that off. They definitely didn't have time to go buy clothes to rough up to make her a zombie.

Leo had insisted that he had an idea, and Grant had left him to it.

Now... Well, he definitely couldn't say that Tilda wasn't happy with her costume. She got to combine her favourite princess with her insistence that her Halloween costume had to be scary, somehow. It was absolutely unique, and the smile on his little girl's face while she rang the doorbell at the next house was hard to miss.

"Your brilliant plan was pretty brilliant." Grant admitted, not even managing to sound grudging about it. He didn't have a bad thing to say about what Leo had managed to work out with their daughter. "And neither of of had to be the bad guy."

Leo looked him up and down, raising his eyebrows. "You want to run that by me a second time?" He asked, tipping back his policeman's hat, putting the other hand on his belt. "Convict?"

Grant raised his hands in a shrug, the fake shackles around his wrists rattling as he did. "C’mon. You like it when I'm the bad guy."

Glancing over briefly to watch the kids heading back down the walk to join them, Leo reached up, tugging on the collar of Grant's orange jumpsuit to pull him down for a quick kiss. "Guilty."

"That's gross." Tilda said, clear, her tone flat as she stood beside them, and Grant chuckled, pulling back from Leo to look down at her.

"Says the zombie princess."

She lost her disgusted look, then, grinning again. "Mrs. Lewiston said my costume was  _so cool_!"

"'Cause it is so cool." Brody said, tugging on her arm bandages. "C'mon, let's go to the next house, Til!"

The two of them took off, hurrying down the sidewalk, Brody's satchel bouncing, Tilda's bright orange, pumpkin printed bag swinging on her arm, leaving Grant and Leo to catch up.

"Another successful Halloween." Leo said, as they followed in their children's wake.

"Thanks to you." Grant pointed out.

Leo shook his head, giving Grant a small smile. "Thanks to us."


End file.
